Three Hundred and Fifty Nine
by AppleL0V3R
Summary: Collection. NejiTen. 1. Can't Get it out of My Head - Slow me Down: You know that feeling where you can't stop thinking about something? A tune, an event or a person? What about a combination of them? AU.


**Title:** Slow Me Down

**Author:** AppleL0V3R

**Beta-reader:** Terror-Of-The-Crimson-Night

**Fandom:** Naruto

**Pairing:** Hyuuga, Neji and Tenten

**Rating:** T

**Type:** One-shot – Complete

**Summary:** You know that feeling where you can't stop thinking about something? A tune, an event or a person? What about a combination of them?

**Theme:** #7 - Can't Get it out of My Head

**Word Count:** 3,009

**Disclaimer:** If you've heard of it before then it's obviously not mine.

..:Xx0o0xX:..

Tenten tapped her finger against the desk before her to the rhythm inside her head. It was beginning to get on her nerves since she was supposed to be doing the in class assignment they were just given, but Neji was sitting to her left and she feared she'd never be able to concentrate while knowing he was in such a close vicinity of her. Especially not after what had happened so recently at yet another one of Ino and Sasuke's infamous parties.

He wouldn't even look at her though and that was really frustrating her too.

What was his problem anyway? You don't do_ that _and then ignore the girl you've known since childhood. It doesn't work that way.

Oh and not mention what 'that' was.

_Friday Night_

_Sasuke's Mansion_

_The brown haired teenage girl made her way through the front gate of the large home. She never could understand why a family of four would want to live in a might-as-well-be-castle-size home. It made absolute zero sense, but she supposed it did make good for impressions. And parties. Which it seemed Sasuke threw a lot and Ino – his girlfriend since last year of junior high – typically organized them._

_Tenten wasn't best friends and more like 'hey, you're my best friend's best girl but not girlfriend so we might as well be friends' or 'hey, you're my boyfriend's best friend's best girl but not girlfriend so we might as well hang out and do girl stuff together'. Because that's exactly what she was. _

_In fact that's exactly why she was here. That best friend whose best girl but not girlfriend she was. Well that made the most sense in the world, now didn't it? At any rate that best friend goes by the name of Hyuuga, Neji. They'd been best friends – even if she did have a crush since day one that now she was sure to be love now. – since they were in the first grade. And Neji is Sasuke's best friend and therefore Ino's boyfriend's best friend. _

_Gotta love how confusing relations could get._

_Sasuke and Ino are the most popular people in school, but pretty descent as well despite having earned their reputations. Ino could be a bitch, a very stuck up bitch when she wanted and Sasuke could be a completely arrogant asshole that all the girls loved. Except for Me and Ino's three best friends: Haruno, Sakura, Hyuuga, Hinata and Subaku no Temari. Which is another way she is connected to the girl._

_Hinata is Neji's cousin that he treats like a little sister and she is also Tenten's best friend since before she met Neji. _

_But surprisingly not how she met the long brown haired nerd – of course he'd glare and smack her on the arm if she ever called him that to his face as true as it was. Neji was just odd like that, because technically, the term for people like him is genus, but that'd just be adding air to that ego of his. Most thought Neji would be arrogant for the reputation he has, top student in school academically, very athletic because of all the sport he can play at varsity level. Then they meet him and believe his actually down to earth when he's not in one of those rare condescending moods of his. And lastly they get as close as Naruto – Sasuke's best friend since before preschool, boyfriend of Hinata. He was also Neji's torture victim for at least a year before Neji let it up, and yet managed to stay best friends with him –and Sasuke are to him and they learn he is prideful and has something of ego that he's mastered hiding what with his heritage and all. _

_But she could go on for hours about the Hyuuga boy and still not even have dented what he's like and her opinions of him. _

_That's what she gets for falling in love with someone who she is pretty sure only sees her as a best friend. Love sucks. It really does. Whoever said it was worth it was spouting a whole bunch of bullshit. The one's who say it's like pain have it pegged. _

_Anyway. Sakura. The pink haired girl was Sasuke's first ex but is now one of his best friends. She is currently dating Subaku no __Gaara__ – Temari's little brother consequently and a friend of Tenten's since junior high. She and Ino go back to before preschool as well, hit a rough patch and became rivals in elementary over Sasuke then became like sisters fighting and all a few years after. Next to Ino she is the second most popular girl in school as well as the female version of Neji's brainiac side. That fact has made the __two good friends__ as well._

_Lastly, Temari. She and her two siblings – the last unmentioned one being Kankuro – moved to Konoha two or so years prior and she's currently dating Shikamaru who is also a genus with an IQ over 200. Within the first month of enrolling her and Tenten had gotten into a fight and so the two teens had argued up and down a lot. Eventually though after an story that would be best saved for later they had turned into good friends and were now best friends, not as close as Tenten and Hinata who might as well be sisters, but still close._

_Well enough of the boring explanations not too mention complicated and very confusing relationship structure._

_Neji had dragged her into this because he didn't like parties – neither did she, but he liked them even less – but as Sasuke's best friend along with Naruto and Gaara it would start false rumors that the two were arguing if he didn't show. __High school__, way too full of drama loving idiots who need to learn how to think for themselves. Honestly. So because he had to, she had to. Besides, his uncle seemed to like her so it lessened the lecture when he brought her back to his house._

_But that's also a bit of a doozy to explain so she wasn't even going to go there. _

_Some girl who might as well have been half naked rushed by the brunette, bumping shoulders but not even bothering with an over the shoulder sorry. Rolling her eyes and far more used to it then a non-party girl ought to be, she shoved her hands in the pockets of green tinted pants that she'd chosen to wear with a Chinese style pink top. She wore a lot of said style mostly because she liked it but partially because she was half Chinese. The rest of her was Japanese._

_She made her way to the garden because anywhere else and she'd go insane. The pool area was probably full of naked drunks and some couples making out, the kitchen and entire ground floor for that matter was probably full of guys messing up the house, the upper levels consisting of rooms and hall closets was probably littered with even more couple making out and well on their way to making love. She didn't even bother to think about how she would be helping clean up the entire mess like always. Which left the garden that no one but a few select people including her were allowed into._

_She easily swerved in and out between people, dodging anything potentially harmful and reaching hands until she reached her destination. When she did she flashed a grin to the guy guarding the large, black iron gate and continued on pausing only for when he opened the gate. "Thanks" She called slipping through there wasn't a response because she knew the guy didn't talk much._

_Imagine her surprise when she found Neji there. He'd seated himself on a bench that over looked the hemps. Sasuke had gotten his mother to plant those simply to tease Neji for his fetish – as she liked to call it – with fate and destiny. Hemps do after all symbolize fate. He liked to look at them and simply think as he'd told her once. She knew his life was beyond hectic and when he was alone his mind often overloaded itself because no one was around to watch the repercussions._

_That was how they'd met actually. In an empty classroom. She'd hurried back to the room remembering that she'd forgotten her practice weapon for her martial arts class and there he was staring out the window with clouded eyes that seemed like they wanted to cry but were only able to spew invisible tears. He'd turned to her upon her entrance and tried to cover up with that usual façade of his, but only achieved a cracked mask. Forgetting about her class that was typically the highlight of her day as well as what she'd returned to retrieve, she walked over to him and without thinking about it hugged one of the most unapproachable guys in school._

_Since then, she'd aimed to be there for him. Simplicity in complexity. A smiling face when the whole world seemed to be bearing down on him. And very rarely didn't she not achieve that. Perhaps that was why they were so close. They were anchors to each other, the one thing keeping the other going._

_So she smiled and padded over to the seeming oblivious teen – because it sometimes she thought he knew everything, never was she able to catch him off guard – and plopped down on the bench "Hey."_

_He didn't even glance at her "Hello, Tenten. Glad you could make it."_

"_You just don't want to face the horrors of drunken fan girls without your faithful best friend that they'll think is your girlfriend without you having to say or do a thing."_

"_That's one way of putting it."_

"_And the other is 'glad you could make it.'"_

"_Exactly"_

"_I was just translating."_

"_You were assuming."_

"_Well, I'm always happy to make an ass out of you and me."_

_He snorted "Of course you are."_

_And then they lapsed into silence used to bickering and then being silent and then actually talking themselves into silence, or an argument, whichever comes first._

"_You know," He started quietly and yeah he normally was on the soft and quiet side, but something in his voice made the brown eyed girl jerk her head up from the hemps she'd begun to stare at in turn for looking at her companion who was still looking at those damn flowers. She found herself wishing he'd look at her after a moment of silence. She was about to urge him on too but he'd looked up. And suddenly, she wanted the flowers to have that heavy eyed serious look placed back on them. His white pupil eyes made her want to gulp and turn to mush as she felt her stomach start to turn and do all those other nauseating motions that could be mistaken for sickness. Love sick at any rate. _

_She pushed down all the risen urges and opened her mouth, "Yes?" her normally self-confident voice had managed to not wobble but that didn't mean it was steady either._

"_I wouldn't mind if you _were_ my girlfriend."_

_And she fell off the bench._

_He sighed, and of course he'd taken that as a resounding hell no. "That has to be the best way to deflate any guy's ego, there Tenten."_

_She quickly scrambled to her feet not really caring and at the same time completely conscious about the fact that she now had dirt and flower petals all over her back and that her clothes were wrinkled. Her hair had probably seen better days too. And then it occurred to her that Neji had seen her much worse then this and couldn't figure out just why the hell her appearance mattered now. But it did, irrationally. "I'm not saying no, Neji. You just took me by surprise is all." _

_Instantly his crestfallen face that he was trying to hide brightened. "Then your answer?"_

"_To a question you haven't asked?" She replied shoving her fists into her hips and found herself unable to keep the red off her face. _

_Neji's girl. She would finally be with the guy she loved. It didn't seem possible with all the things her heart was trying to at once. It was trying to soar and pound and stop and who knows what else and her blank mind that wasn't recovering was only making it harder to actually process everything. _

_He scowled but did as she'd hinted anyway, much to her surprise and amusement. "Well you be my girlfriend, Tenten?"_

_She sobered immediately. It was as if even though she already knew what he was asking her to be when he'd first brought it up, hearing the actual question made the whole world seem to freeze in place and when it finally decided to move again, she found herself lunging for him. _

_Surprised he could only catch her and fall off the bench and pound painfully into the ground with the nodding girl in his arms. "Of course Neji, you have no idea how much…" She trailed off as she observed his pained expression. Then laughed. "Sorry, I didn't think you'd fall like in those cheesy romances."_

_He shot her a half-hearted glare and she giggled because she knew he detested those books and movies even though she was a sucker for them. He was the only one who knew that about her. The tough, can-take-down-a-guy-twice-her-size Tenten loves cheesy romance novels._

"_And you know, after the couple falls off the bench –"_

"_Tackled off because the ever tolerable boyfriend's girl can't help herself." He corrected_

_Rolling her eyes she continued as if he hadn't spoken "– they're suppose to stare deeply into each others and then –"_

_Again he cut her off, this time though he'd slightly raised his head and placed a hand on the back of hers to push her towards him, she went willingly and ended up lip-locking with Hyuuga, Neji. _

Present

English room 238. Nearly the end of the last class of the day.

Then he'd been all gentlemanly for the rest of the night, even driving her home.

But now…as she's already pointed out, he won't even glance at her.

Sighing nearly soundlessly, she switched to tapping her pencil completely ignoring the blank paper before her. She'd do it at home, she couldn't concentrate here. And then the bell finally rang. Pursing her lips she glanced at Neji who was gathering his things then decided to do so herself.

Before she could though, a hand engulfs hers and she knows immediately who it is. Her new boyfriend, soon to be ex if he plans to ignore her existence for all eternity. She paused and looked up expectantly.

He was staring down at her but didn't appear to be about to say anything. But that, she knew, was because there were still people left in the room. His eyes though, were asking for patience. Patience she didn't have. She wanted answers damn it, not stare at him because he had PDA problems. So out of habit, she started tapping again. Not the pencil because he had a firm grasp on her hand to prevent that. He knew what was coming. Good. He'd better have a reason because anything even remotely excuse-like was going to earn him an ass-kicking. Instead, she'd started tapping her foot in an impatient manner. He didn't bother to stop her; he'd tried to the first time after they'd meet and end up with a swelling cheek and a chastisement courtesy of his attacker.

"Tenten," he started softly the second the door shut but then pauses.

"Yes?" She prompts in a clipped tone that was a tell-tale sign of her anger as well as her narrowing chocolate colored eyes.

"I know you're furious with me." He started again, wincing slightly but she couldn't tell if it was from her tone or his statement.

"No really? You make me your girlfriend and be all gentlemanly and then you ignore me. Of course I'm not furious." She retorted sarcastically trying to snatch her hand back.

"I don't have an excuse –"

"Good. I don't want one."

"– but I am sorry."

She froze, even as close to him as she was, he didn't apologize. To anyone. For anything. And now he was saying sorry to her which deflated her anger right quick. "That's not fair." She mumbled, looking away.

She heard his mouth close guessing he was about to continue but had heard her. She could imagine his stumped expression, eyebrows drawn together and furrowed, mouth set in a slight frown. She nearly giggled at the picture presented to her after all confusion was something that crossed the Hyuuga as scarce as a sincere apology. "What's not fair?"

The urge died and his words. "That I have to fight to stay mad at you." She peeked shyly up at him through lose strands of hair the same shade as her eyes.

A smile ghosted across his lips. "Good, but I'm still going to make it up to you."

And a mischievous grin crossed hers making him look immediately wary. "Do I get to choose?"

Looking even more suspicious he slowly nodded his head as if accepting his fate.

Her grin grew to become ear-to-ear like a grinning cat. "Then you're forgiven, my dear boyfriend." Saying the word caused her to remember Friday in flashes and resulted in a soft smile instead of the grin from not two seconds before.


End file.
